The sisters had arrived home to Tandur in Telangana’s Vikarabad district for their elder sister’s wedding and were returning to Hyderabad.
Published Nov 03, 2025 | 5:32 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 03, 2025 | 5:44 PM
The trio had returned home for their elder sister’s wedding.
Synopsis: Three sisters—an MBA student and two degree students, all studying in Hyderabad—were returning to the city after a weeks-long stay at their home in Tandur, Telangana, when their TSRTC bus collided with a speeding tipper lorry. The trio were among the 21 people killed in the accident in the early hours of Monday. Just two weeks earlier, their home had been filled with laughter, music and wedding festivities; now, it has fallen into unbearable silence.
When Yellaiah Goud dropped his three daughters at the bus station early on Monday, 3 November, he had no idea he was seeing them alive for the last time.
A few hours after he waved them goodbye, he stood outside the mortuary, his world shattered and silent.
The sisters—Sai Priya, a final-year degree student; Thanusha, an MBA student; and Nandini, a first-year degree student—were studying at a women’s college in Koti, Hyderabad.
They had returned home to Tandur in Telangana’s Vikarabad district for their elder sister’s wedding on 17 October and had stayed back to enjoy the family celebrations.
The three were among the 21 people who lost their lives in a horrific road accident near Chevella on National Highway 163 (Hyderabad–Bijapur), when a speeding tipper lorry, collided with their Telangana State Road Transport Corporation bus.
It was around 7.10 am when tragedy struck. The tipper lorry, carrying gravel rammed head-on into their bus and overturned. The stones cascaded over the vehicle, trapping and suffocating passengers inside. The sisters were among those who could not escape.
Just two weeks earlier, their home had been filled with laughter, music and wedding festivities. On the morning of Monday, 3 November, the same home fell into unbearable silence.
“They were going back to college,” said Yellaiah, a driver by profession. “I dropped them myself. I sent them to death. All three are gone. What is left for me now?” he cried at the hospital.
At the government hospital where post-mortem examinations were conducted, the father collapsed beside the stretchers. Relatives tried to comfort him, but his grief drowned out every voice.
By afternoon, the bodies were brought back to Tandur. The narrow lanes filled with cries and disbelief. College friends rushed from Hyderabad. “We were just together last week,” said one of them, wiping her tears. “They were so full of life.”
Officials later confirmed that the lorry was overloaded, carrying nearly 60 tonnes of gravel – far above the permitted 35 tonnes. Investigators believe the driver tried to avoid a pothole and swerved into the opposite lane, colliding with the bus.
When rescue teams arrived, they found survivors buried under layers of stone. One of them, Jayasudha, a contract teacher at a Gurukul school, was trapped up to her waist. She was pulled out with severe leg injuries and rushed to NIMS Hospital in Hyderabad.
She had boarded the bus at Vikarabad after deciding not to wait for four colleagues who were running late. Those colleagues, by chance, escaped the mishap.
Locals blamed the condition of the narrow, congested road for the accident. Road-widening work had been stalled for months due to an intervention by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had been lifted only recently.
Officials said the government has sanctioned ₹920 crore to widen the 46-km stretch between the Telangana Police Academy and Manneguda.
The plan includes the translocation of 950 trees – 250 to be moved to nearby fields and the rest to be replanted along the new median. Work officially began on 31 October, just three days before the tragedy.
For Yellaiah, however, no roadwork or investigation can bring comfort. His three daughters are gone – their books unopened, their dreams unfulfilled, his heart broken.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
